Видимо, если в ствол запихивали патрон, а не только пулю без бумаги, то удара приклада о землю было недостаточно для нормального уплотнения порохового заряда.
"Here I cannot help observing to you, whether it proceeded from an idea of self-preservation, or natural instinct, but the soldiers greatly improved the mode they were
taught in, as to expedition. For as soon as they had primed their pieces and put the cartridge into the barrel, instead of ramming it down with their rods, they struck the butt end of the piece upon the ground, and bringing it to the present, fired it
off.” Here Anburey’s references to “self-preservation” and “natural instinct,” his
comment that the men “fired . . . off” their pieces once they brought them to the “present,” and the fact that he does not mention verbal commands strongly imply that the grenadiers were loading and firing at will. In the context of the furious, scrambling action at Hubbardton, this is not surprising. But the fact that former sergeant Roger Lamb reproduced Anburey’s passage almost verbatim in his memoir (though he participated in Burgoyne’s Albany expedition as a corporal in the 9th Regiment, he was not present at Hubbardton) would tend to suggest that he too was familiar with this corner-cutting loading technique."
"Yet neither Anburey nor Lamb seems to have been aware that the practice of spurning the ramrod also significantly reduced the muzzle velocity of each discharge. As evidence of this one should note that, during a skirmish in New Jersey in February 1780, soldiers of the Queen’s Rangers were struck by rebel bullets that did not penetrate their clothes. Simcoe later judged that these rounds had been fired by militiamen “who had not recollection sufficient to ram down their charges."
"WITH ZEAL AND WITH BAYONETS ONLY.
THE BRITISH ARMY ON CAMPAIGN IN NORTH AMERICA, 1775-1783"
………………..
Matthew H. Spring
А сплевывание пули без бумаги практиковалось еще со времени фитильных мушкетов, когда патроны еще не практиковались.
"The resultant rate of fire was slow as the musketeer juggled musket, rest, priming flask, match, powder and ball. Some measures were taken to speed things up from the very beginning. On the battlefield soldiers carried musket balls in their mouths and just spat them down the barrel to avoid fumbling for them in the small ball bag on the bandoleer, and in action the orders given for firing were reduced to just three: ‘make
ready’, ‘present’ (that is, they levelled their muskets at the enemy) and ‘fire’."
"Destructive and Formidable: British Infantry Firepower 1642–1765"
